Imported degrees, exported jobs: How America’s student visa system became a foreign labor pipeline

WASHINGTON – Originally intended to support academic exchange, U.S. student visa programs have gradually been expanded and transformed into large-scale foreign labor channels, all to the detriment of multitudes of American workers.

Since the 1990s, changes to the international student F-1 visa framework and the introduction of Optional Practical Training, or OPT, have enabled hundreds of thousands of international graduates to enter the American workforce annually, often without the oversight, wage protections or regulatory limits required under traditional employment visa programs.

Among the organizations recognizing and operationalizing this shift is Miles Education, an India-based company, which has developed a business model that integrates education, immigration, employment and offshoring, thereby largely redefining the role of the U.S. student visa system.

The international student F-1 visa, established under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, enables foreign nationals to attend accredited U.S. educational institutions as full-time students. Students must demonstrate financial sufficiency and a nonimmigrant intent – that is, an intention to stay temporarily in the U.S. but not immigrate or seek permanent residency.

In 1992, the U.S. Department of Justice introduced Optional Practical Training, allowing F-1 international student graduates to work for 12 months after completing their studies. Then in 2008, the George W. Bush administration expanded this with the STEM Optional Practical Training Extension, granting an additional 24 months to graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

Thus, these Optional Practical Training and STEM OPT programs enable international graduates to work in the United States for up to three years after completing their studies, and with very few restrictions on employers. Companies are not required to prove that American workers are unavailable for the job, meet minimum wage standards based on the industry or location, or sponsor the worker through a formal visa process.

Additionally, there is no limit on the number of OPT workers a company can hire. As immigration policy expert Dr. Ron Hira has testified before Congress, this structure effectively created a parallel labor market operating without congressional authorization or traditional worker protections.

Miles Education’s model thrives within this regulatory void.

How OPT has changed under different administrations

U.S. companies have obvious and powerful financial incentives to hire Optional Practical Training workers instead of American graduates.

Through Miles’ placement services, corporations gain access to an ever-abundant pool of OPT workers who are ready for immediate employment, offering a workforce that is less expensive, less regulated and less legally encumbered than their American counterparts.

One obvious example: Employers who hire OPT workers are exempt from paying Social Security and Medicare taxes, resulting in approximately an 8% reduction in employment costs per worker. Such advantages make OPT workers significantly more affordable and easier to hire than American graduates, leading businesses to favor foreign student labor over the domestic workforce.

Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Labor has no authority to enforce wage standards for Optional Practical Training workers, which means it operates outside normal employment-based immigration oversight. The Department of Homeland Security certifies student visa programs, but does not require employers to test the labor market – i.e., demonstrate to the government that they’ve tried but failed to find a qualified, willing, available U.S. worker for a specific job before hiring a foreign national. Also, Optional Practical Training’s classification as a “student benefit” rather than a work visa shields it from labor protections.

As of 2023, the Department of Homeland Security’s SEVIS database – short for Student and Exchange Visitor Information System – reported over 1.5 million active F-1 and M-1 visa holders, with approximately 539,000 authorized for work through OPT or STEM OPT. Organizations that took note of the gap between immigration intent and labor reality viewed it not as a loophole, but as a market opportunity. For companies like Miles Education, which structured its business around that gap, it has proven to be highly profitable.

Transparency reports from the first Trump administration revealed that corporations such as Amazon, Deloitte, Ernst & Young and JPMorgan Chase were among the largest employers of workers under the OPT and STEM OPT programs. In 2019, for example, Amazon employed 2,813 OPT/STEM OPT participants, Deloitte employed 822 and Ernst & Young employed 431, figures publicly available through the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Student and Exchange Visitor Program.

However, under the Biden administration, ICE stopped releasing employer-specific Optional Practical Training data, reducing public visibility into how major companies utilize the program. This rollback in transparency has been noted by immigration policy analysts and organizations advocating for greater oversight.

Miles Education: Structuring a commercial labor pipeline into the U.S.

Founded in Mumbai in 2011 by Varun Jain, Miles Education initially focused on training Indian students for U.S. accounting certifications, including the Certified Public Accountant and Certified Management Accountant programs. By 2020, as U.S. work authorization pathways expanded, Miles shifted its model to bundle services into a single commercial offering, university admissions assistance, immigration guidance, Optional Practical Training job placement and eventual offshore transition.

For a reported fee of approximately $48,000, students were promised admission into partner U.S. universities, support in securing international student F-1 visas, assistance obtaining Optional Practical Training authorization and direct placement into U.S. companies. Internal promotional materials emphasized career outcomes, expedited and guaranteed immigration services and corporate hiring connections, with significantly less emphasis on traditional academic achievement.

This image is prominently displayed on Miles Education’s U.S. Pathway website, illustrating how its program can assist Indian nationals in achieving a successful career in the U.S. with an impressive salary in just seven months.

Scaling the model: Miles’ partnerships and reach

Miles Education’s business model has demonstrated significant success and operational presence in the U.S. market, characterized by financial growth, university collaborations and successful placement of graduates into American firms. As of March 31, 2023, the company reported annual revenues of approximately $22.8 million USD, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 94% over five years. This growth highlights the commercial viability of its integrated education-to-employment pipeline.

The company’s success is fueled by a marketing strategy that emphasizes access to the U.S. job market over traditional academic achievements. By providing a comprehensive suite of services that includes entry into the U.S. education system, a pathway to legal work authorization and direct job placement with American companies, Miles serves effectively as an education consultant, visa facilitator, labor supplier and offshore partner. This multi-faceted approach enables the company to capture commercial value throughout the student-to-worker transition.

A key modification to its model involved redesigning degree programs to enhance student eligibility for the STEM framework of Optional Practical Training. To obtain eligibility for the STEM OPT extension, Miles collaborated with U.S. universities to provide STEM-designated Master’s programs in accounting, partnering with institutions such as Michigan State University, Rutgers University, Case Western Reserve University and the University of California, Riverside.

Although accounting, one of Miles’ primary offerings, is not classified as a STEM field by the Department of Homeland Security, the company worked with these universities to integrate data-centric courses like business analytics and information systems, an enhancement that allowed these programs to achieve STEM OPT designation, in turn extending U.S. work authorization for international graduates from 12 to 36 months.

Miles marketed its services to U.S. employers as an efficient workforce solution, highlighting advantages like “visa-free hiring” and “visa-less talent access,” which appeal to employers seeking graduates already authorized to work under Optional Practical Training.

Building the pipeline

Miles Education has developed several subsidiaries and program services that significantly contribute to its full-cycle success in the international education and labor markets.

Miles STEM Pathway, for example, promotes the advantages of three years of work without visa sponsorship, effectively transforming a non-STEM accounting degree into a STEM-designated program by integrating data analytics.

Through the STEM Pathway program, Miles has positioned itself as a key player in the global education and labor sectors by connecting academic pathways to employment opportunities. The integration of STEM elements into non-STEM degrees has improved job prospects, establishing Miles as both an education provider and a facilitator of labor-market access through its Ed-Work model, which combines academic enrollment with employment placement.

Likewise, Miles’s subsidiary Miles Talent Hub provides pre-vetted, work-ready candidates who do not require sponsorship or labor condition applications, enabling cost savings and facilitating rapid team scaling. This approach has established student visa work authorizations as a viable hiring option.

In the U.S., Indiana’s CPA Society’s Vendor Directory, for example, highlights Miles’ pool of over 1,200 international graduate accountants available for three years without the need for visa sponsorship.

Miles Talent Hub also promotes its Placement Drive program as a direct hiring pipeline into U.S. accounting and finance firms, providing international graduates with competitive starting salaries. Key partners include EisnerAmper, BPM and major tech companies including Amazon and Microsoft, all of which highlight successful alumni placements. Additionally, the company leverages its connections with the Indian “Big Four” – Deloitte India, EY India, PwC India and KPMG India – to develop a robust foreign labor channel into the U.S. market.

Miles Education’s Dual Coursework program, provided through its U.S. Washington-based subsidiary, Futurense Technologies US Pathways allows candidates to complete some coursework in India and avoid standard entrance exams, including the English language tests typically required for F-1 visas for studying at U.S. universities. This approach not only minimizes the educational requirements in the U.S., but also expedites the transition to employment.

In a story published by English-language Indian news site News 24 Futurense’s US Pathway is characterized as disrupting traditional study abroad models by cultivating strategic partnerships, providing scholarships and streamlining master’s degree processes for Indian talent. This involves collaborations with top-ranked universities in the United States, including Case Western Reserve University, DePaul University, Drexel University, Rutgers, SUNY Buffalo and others in the pipeline.

Futurense founder Raghav Gupta remarked, “Unfortunately, studying abroad has evolved into a societal privilege, inaccessible to Indians due to exorbitant tuition fees, complex systems and high entry barriers. The numbers were distressing and something had to be done to make the U.S. masters and its market available to all deserving candidates in India. This is why we created India’s very own Pathway program.”

In addition to their rapid-degree programs, reportedly Futurense provides a “tailor-made” untapped talent pool sourced through unconventional methods that can be onboarded in as little as 48 hours and can save employers up to 65% on their costs.

Offshoring careers: Completing the Miles labor cycle

When students’ OPT and STEM OPT work authorization periods near expiration, Miles has facilitated the next stage, transferring workers to offshore operations in India via its affiliate, Miles Talent Hub. Through this model, companies could retain trained personnel at even lower wage rates, sidestepping U.S. immigration complexities altogether.

What began as a student visa for academic pursuit frequently ended in permanent offshore labor substitution, a transformation few policymakers anticipated when these programs were created.

Conclusion: A system quietly rewritten

The international student F-1 visa and Optional Practical Training programs were introduced under the premise of educational exchange – temporary in nature, academic in intent and limited in scope. Federal law makes clear that international student F-1 visa students must pursue full-time study, with no guaranteed right to remain in the United States for work. Optional Practical Training was created as a training benefit, not as a labor source.

Yet Miles Education’s model operates at the opposite end of that framework. Rather than focusing on education for its own sake, its approach views education as a pathway to long-term work authorization. By integrating STEM-designated admissions, immigration consulting, U.S. job placement and offshore continuity into a single, cohesive pipeline, Miles functions more as a private labor channel than as a traditional academic provider. While Miles frequently markets its program as a solution to help address America’s “skills gap” crisis, the model is strategically designed to make India “the powerhouse of talent.”

As a final consideration: If a program designed for temporary academic training now facilitates long-term labor substitution, bypasses wage standards and government oversight, and encourages the offshoring of U.S. jobs while offering no protections for American workers, then the question becomes unavoidable:

Why is it still allowed?

As companies optimize for cost savings and compliance avoidance, and as intermediaries design business models that extract value from each regulatory blind spot, the intended purpose of these programs fades further and further from their original intent. If the outcomes result in tangible harm to American graduates and the irreversible loss of opportunities, it highlights not only a policy failure, but also the need for a critical national decision.

The international student F-1 visa and Optional Practical Training programs were not created to displace Americans, yet today they are routinely used in ways that do precisely that, and on an increasingly wide scale.